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Saturday, August 12, 2017

For the Record

I apparently realized this back in 2015 when reviewingPerilous Season Goodreads, but it's a good realization so I thought I ought to post it here for future reference.

A character type I really, really like is the mentor figure who realizes what the protagonist's destiny is going to be and takes it upon themself to facilitate that destiny without bothering to reveal it to the protagonist. Examples: Lith'Rian, Navis, Citan, Deth. . . yeah, this pretty consistently comes up as a theme in characters I like. Those who do it maliciously (Doc Scratch) don't count - only those who either like or are trying to get on the good side of the protagonist, but still don't want to bother to tell them what's going to happen, for whatever reason.

Nobody ever gives me book recommendations on this blog, but if you happen to know of any books (or, hey, even TV shows, these days) that feature this character type, do let me know, please?

7 comments:

LOL, well, yes, that's often the issue with asking for that particular kind of book recommendation request :(

My best friend has recommended a book to me within the past year on the basis that the book features a general who's possessed by the ghost of another, evil general in order to help her fight more effectively - but apparently that's the basic premise of the book, so it isn't a spoiler. And another friend recommended a book to me on LJ because the ending involves Gnosticism, but said that to say more would be to spoil it. So sometimes people do recommend books to me because of knowledge about what tropes I like ;-)

Is this book by an author who's written a lot of books? If so, I guess you could just say "so-and-so" wrote a book like that, and I could look into the books of so-and-so with the expectation of finding a cool character at some point, but without a spoiler as to which particular book the character appears in?

As I am sure you intended, those are very thought-provoking comments! But, sadly, I don't think I can really share the thoughts provoked with you unless you have read The Riddle-Master trilogy and/or Hexwood. I know you've read some DWJ books, but I don't remember if you've read Hexwood. And I seriously doubt you've read The Riddle-Master trilogy, although I suppose you might, delightfully, prove me wrong. I'm not sure it's your type of thing at all, what with the very traditional epic fantasy, but suddenly I realize you would be a great person to say some of the things I want to say about it to. I suppose that if you aren't planning to read it ever and therefore don't mind spoilers, I could still share my thoughts with you. . . . (I wouldn't spoil Hexwood for you if you haven't read it because I know that you do read DWJ).